THE MM STORY.

Here's a short version and some photos of our Morris Minor.

Back in 1991, whilst living in Tasmania, hubby spied an MM poking out from some large blackberry bushes on a farm.  He approached the farmer to buy it and was told, "If you can get it out, it's yours."
He and the 2 boys went along and managed to extract it and brought it home in this state.

Originally a panel van.

This what it looked like at first.  So much rust and a broken chassis meant a radical rethink.  All the work was done by hubby except for a few minor bits, such as re-chroming the radiator grill and new upholstery on the seats (eventually).

Top:  rust.  Bottom: broken chassis.

The next few photos are of the work in progress.  I've scanned these photos and some aren't the best quality (or poses), but you'll see the scale of the work involved.

Work underway whilst on her side.

Extending the cab to fit in my 6'3" other half.

The cab back finished.

Once a lot more work was done on the chassis, it was remounted and ready for an engine.  As it came without an engine, we bought a MM engine, which we later replaced with a Toyota engine.

Sprayed red, engine and 2 additions which kept popping up in all the later photos. (Our two boys as teenagers)

As it was not possible to keep the van part, hubby decided to make it into a ute (pickup).  Below is the start of the tray for the back.

Uhm, not the best photo in the world, but the only one we have of the progress on this bit.

Now for the exciting part.  Done, except for the sides of the tray.

Here she is for a photo with DD's Mini, our black sedan and part of my Cortina.

We'd had the black one since 1988 and belonged to the MM Club of Tasmania and it was great for outings with our 3 children, but hubby also loves a challenge.

In 1992, it was finally ready for it's first big challenge.  A trip to South Australia with The Morris Minor Touring Club of Australia.  We would be camping (just the 2 of us), which we'd not done very much of.  Here we are ready to go.

Err!  Yes, that is us.  How times change.

She has travelled to many places over the years including Alice Springs (7,000kms round trip), Ceduna on the edge of the Nullabor, back to Tasmania and lots of places in between. In that time we went from camping to using a camper van, shown below.  Camping in a 3 man tent wasn't all that comfortable and I'll leave it to your imagination as to how a tall person gets dressed in one.

The camper trailer.

 Hubby used her as his work vehicle as well, hence the amount of time that's being spent on her now.  She's been back on the road for 23 years now.


FOOTNOTE.

My first car when I was 18 in 1967.  My grandfather helped me purchase it and I had it for nearly 2 years and had lots of fun in her.  This is the "only" photo I have.

Wash day!

A short story of CARS, not quilting, but then we all have lots to life outside our hobbies.
Take care all.
Susan.